What Are Web Directories?

By Author: Carolyn Clayton
Total Articles: 174
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For many of us trying to remember various web site addresses can be a challenge or maybe you don't know what web address you are after. It was for this reason that search engines were brought about to make it easier for us to find what we need on the Internet.

Search engines however no longer remain the only way of finding a specific web address. We are seeing an ever growing convenience in the form of web directories. A web directory is a place used to list web site addresses. They specialise in linking to web sites and categorising links. A web directory is not a search engine, it doesn't display web sites based on a keyword search; a web directory lists sites by category.

An example of a well established web directory is Yahoo! Directory. There are thousands of directories available to you across the Internet. Most of these directories are broad and cover varies subject areas, meaning you can get web site addresses for pretty much any topic that you need them on. There are also smaller directories available across the Internet; these directories are known as niche directories, meaning that they specialise in ...
... a specific area of interest such as computer technology. Although these directories are smaller they will provide you with more specialist links that you would probably otherwise not found.

Although the general look of a web directory isn't of great importance as long as the links are working correctly you can come across some directories that are better established. These are the type of directories that you will probably find most helpful as they will provide you with more information than just a web link. On these you will find a page dedicated to a web link and on this page you will find information about the site as well as screen shots of the web site. This will ultimately prove to be of great help to you when you are looking for a specialist website as it will save you time due to the fact you won't have to open numerous web pages until you find a site that you want as you will be able to preview the site before hand.

Also if you have an established website and you want to bring in some more traffic you can submit your website to a web directory site in order for it to be placed on the web directory. Your site will then be checked to ensure the content is of valid information and in order for it to be categorised.

Another form of a web directory are article directories. These are sites that are built for the purpose of people submitting their articles to them for free in order to get their work seen by others or as a way of marketing a website for SEO purposes. These article directories contain large amounts of useful content which is free to use by anyone. Many website owners use these articles as a way of increasing the keywords of their websites in SEO terms.